"Session" - Song by Song, Let's Talk Linkin Park

Discussion in 'Linkin Park Chat' started by hawk, Jul 2, 2014.

  1. polleo

    polleo You're gonna carry that weight. LPA Super Member

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    Yah, Filip, you missed out on some weird shit. Some of it was really weird, like a seven out of ten Filips weird.


    ---

    Now, back on track. Powerless is one of the LP songs that I don't get ha. I think it's nothing special as an album closer. I understand the lyrics have a value to some people but yeah, the song makes no distinction on me.
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2015
  2. Filip

    Filip god break down the door LPA Contributor

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    Man, that's like 9 out of 10 Paramores.
     
  3. Atticus

    Atticus Bullets lance the bravest lungs

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    A LIGHT THAT NEVER COMES

    “Night gets darkest just before dawn”


    Recharged_Itunes1-590x590.jpg

    While waiting in the limelight of 2013 between LIVING THINGS and The Hunting Party, Linkin Park collaborated with rising EDM superstar, Steve Aoki in releasing A Light That Never Comes. The electronic anthem is equal parts Linkin Park and equal parts Steve Aoki, resulting in a song that distinctly sounds right at home within each respective artist’s repertoire.


    News of collaboration between the artists ran rampant throughout the summer of 2013, leaving both fan bases salivating at the mouth for more. The waiting finally came to a close on August 10, 2013 at the Summer Sonic Festival in Tokyo where Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda accompanied Aoki onstage during his set to premiere the song to a Japanese crowd.


    In a way similar to QWERTY, Linkin Park fans immediately clung to this live performance until the studio record would be released. They had to wait over a month for the official release, as A Light That Never Comes was officially unveiled in September 2013 as a promotional single.

    Immediately, A Light That Never Comes sets the tone with a sweeping electronic synth and a thumping digital pulse. An organic drumbeat from Bourdon reinforces the scene before a brief bass drop quickly throws the song into its first verse. Shinoda emcees for a confident performance similar to that found within LIVING THINGS’ more energetic tracks while the electronic beat continues onwards. The first chorus is classic Linkin Park with Bennington delivering a soaring chorus over a rising instrumental. His vocals have been digitally filtered to give an almost playful vibe as he beckons for, well, a light that never comes.

    During the second half of the chorus the rising instrumental begins to give hints of a beat drop, and of course following Bennington’s performance is a classic drop into Aoki territory. A gungy, dirty electronic breakdown is featured before Shinoda returns again for a shorter rap verse, but one similarly on point. Bennington’s second chorus brings rise to electric guitars buried deeply in the electronic ocean. His vocals are also slightly less altered, giving him an edge again that the filters otherwise diminished. Instead of a beat drop, this time Linkin Park charges into the bridge for a prominent guitar riff and another brief Shinoda verse.

    As the bridge closes and the final chorus is within reach, another rising beat comes forth preparing for a climatic drop. However, A Light That Never Comes fakes out its audience as the drop goes straight into the regular chorus instead of a massive electronic breakdown. The outro for the song features another look at prominent, though muddied guitars as the song comes to a close.

    Lyrically, A Light That Never Comes feels dystopian, as Bennington is clearly calling for a light to fend off an unknown darkness. Shinoda’s rap verse examines a personified figure who is confident and badass (with lightning above and fire below him) yet the chorus leaves him searching for something he can never find. The “chasing the sun” lyric beautifully explains this fact as nobody can actually chase the sun.


    On Recharged, A Light That Never Comes (Rick Rubin Reboot) is a satisfying, organic re-imagination of the EDM anthem. Featuring what feels like tribal drums and a brooding piano line, the song strips all electronic energy it was had, save for one small push at the end as a sample plays to conclude the track.

    For those who couldn’t get enough of Linkin Park and Steve Aoki’s collaboration, A Light That Never Comes (Remixes) was released in January 2014. Featuring a staggering seven different remixes of A Light That Never Comes, the extended play was a love letter from artists around the globe towards the track.


    Fresh off his organic remixes for LIVING THINGS, veteran Linkin Park remix artist zwieR.Z. delivered the stunning A Light That Never Comes (Rock Remix) which takes the EDM-influenced track and throws it back into the days of Minutes To Midnight or even earlier. While Shinoda’s verses feature a piano and the synths from the song, Bennington’s soaring choruses carry a wall of piercing alternative guitars. For those who wished for a more traditional Linkin Park interpretation, look no further. He even went so far as to edit a music video for the track, as seen above.


    The music video for A Light That Never Comes was released in October 2013. The video was edited by Ghost Town, the same developers behind many of Linkin Park’s most stunning videos including Waiting For The End. The video features a myriad of digital sequences and visually appealing set pieces as the band seems to be trapped in a cybernetic dystopia. Their personas are reduced to nothing more than digital faces that glitch in and out of existence. The brief amount of story follows a digital face of a woman as she wanders the dystopian city, finding monuments along the way. However, with classic Linkin Park grace, the final chorus finally brings light to the city and the opposing monuments crumble to dust. The official music video has just over 10,000,000 views on YouTube.


    Onstage, A Light That Never Comes has found a home with Linkin Park for the majority of time since its release. Although the song premiered with Aoki, Shinoda, and Bennington back in 2013 at Summer Sonic, the full band never came out to play the song. That finally changed on the first show Linkin Park played since the track’s official release on January 19th, 2014 as they premiered the song once more. Interestingly enough, this was the only time since that the full band has played the song completely from start to finish.


    A Light That Never Comes returned for the following European Tour in 2014, however it was one of the victimized songs that had succumbed to editing that left it shortened. With no second verse, chorus, or bridge, the song quickly became a shell of its former self. For the North American Carnivores Tour, the song was dropped in favour of The Hunting Party material. Overall the song was solid live, although Bennington struggled regularly with the high-flying vocals. Watch the video above for the shortened song, after a laughably bad butchered extended intro by Delson for Until It’s Gone.

    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    I tried to make this song click with me on release, but the EDM was just too much. Like with Skin To Bone, I still listen to the pump-up rock remix posted above however. I’m 100% glad the band moved on from this adventure.

    Speaking of moving on, I’ve heard some people say they are excited for The Hunting Party sessions while others are mentioning a break. How should we move forward?
     
  4. Filip

    Filip god break down the door LPA Contributor

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    Definitely take a break before THP. Will post thoughts on ALTNC later.
     
  5. Tocaraca

    Tocaraca A part of me screams away silently

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    I've never heard this song before... it's pretty good. I love both of the vocal parts. The rap is pretty good. The singing sounds kind of like how it sounds in New Divide.
     
  6. Moridin

    Moridin Death Contagious Deity

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    ALTNC is meh. It's just fluff really, nothing I'd go out of my way to hear. Actually this is the first time I've heard it since it's release.
     
  7. lime treacle

    lime treacle You are not alone Über Member

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    Didn't care for it at first, realized it was really fun later on.
     
  8. IronDust71

    IronDust71 Well-Known Member

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    The opposite for me, I thought it was really funny at first, and now I don't care about it anymore.
     
  9. BTorio

    BTorio Well-Known Member

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    It has such a solid chorus melody, but Mike's raps are incredibly weak. The drops are also not that great. I like the instrumentation in the bridge, but overall it just feels really weak. It's a shame that such a strong chorus isn't backed up by the rest of the song. Even though it's not magnificent, it's still fun to jump around to on occasion. Idk why they dropped it so soon from the live setting, other than the fact that Chester seemed to consistently struggle with it.

    I really like the style Rick Rubin brought to it in the remix. If LP had gone after that sound and fleshed it out with more lyrics/instrumentation it could have been a sick track.
     
  10. Captain-EO

    Captain-EO Also Prog Nerd Now, Thanks Gibs LPA Super Member

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    The only thing I really like about the song is Chester's vocals. He's got three tracks of his singing going on at one, harmonizing and also singing with a vocoder. Catchiest part of the song for me. The higher synth is also pretty cool, but the lower, pulsing synths make the song too choppy imo.
     
  11. minuteforce

    minuteforce Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance. LPA Team

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    I like everything about "A Light That Never Comes" track except the lyrics. I dig the drop :)
     
  12. Michele

    Michele Praise Brad Delson, our Lord and Savior. LPA Addict

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    I am normally not so much in this electronic heavie stuff, but this song make me dance and jump :lol:
    Cant be sad when i am listening to this :D Mikes verses are ok, but CHester kills it, really lov the chorus in the song, especially when the beat drops.
     
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  13. Tyler

    Tyler Well-Known Member

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    I like how ALTNC has a good mix of electronic wubs without being dependent on the drop, but the lyrics need work. Mike's verses just suck, but his flow is okay. My biggest problem is that he just recycles a verse for the bridge. The lyrics there are worse than what he raps in most of LT (UIB is his best rapping on the album IMO). I like the chorus lyrics, and the melody makes it that there isn't really anything better to do than go "Ohh ohh" in the refrain.

    Instrumentation is pretty good except for the awkward guitar in the bridge.

    I like the Rick Rubin Reboot but it isn't a standout on Recharged anyway, just a stripped-down version without electronics.

    This has to be one of the toughest songs for Chester to nail live, I don't think he has ever done that anyway. On the performance for Jimmy Kimmel, he was sick and sounded terrible on the chorus, but other times he has been alright. And there was like one full band performance of the full song? The other times were with Aoki and Bennoda or Full band abridged.
    I do like the transition from UIG to ALTNC live though, even though it is shortened.

    I remember when I briefly used Twitter and saw Mike's tweet about the first performance at Summer Sonic. It was alright when the song first premiered and I liked listening to it in the car, but it isn't so spectacular to me after THP.

    One final problem I have with the song is that it was mostly Mike on the recording of it with Aoki giving his electronic parts and little input from the band besides Chester. This was when Brad wasn't playing as much guitar, so we got a crappy riff from Mike.

    But the good thing about this is that they allegedly worked on 5 or 6 songs at that time, with Victorious/ALTNC and Horizons being the ones that made any real progress. Looking forward to Horizons, hopefully it will be released by the time we finish with ALITS/
     
  14. Broman

    Broman Well-Known Member

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    I remember watching the first ever amateur clips of ALTNC. I was so pumped for the song because my edm craving was just around its peak then. Looking back at those very clips, in some instances, it almost seems like a completely different song.

    [video=youtube;uYtlwvdNr6I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYtlwvdNr6I[/video]

    The day the track leaked, I was eating pizza with a friend when I decided to check the LPA and found out the news. I freaked and went home asap. Just like any LP track, the first listens are always some of the best experiences and ALTNC was no exception. Definitely a very fun track (alongside BIO and LGM). I had hoped to see it live at the Carnivores tour, so that was unfortunate, but we still got some nice pro footage. Chester did struggle on the track the first performances we heard of him, but he certainly got better, no denying that. Hands down my favorite performance of ALTNC, with what I'd say is Chester's best performance is from the THP release show.

    skip to 39:08
    [video=youtube;BpjX--QqVzI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpjX--QqVzI[/video]

    Giving two thumbs up for ALTNC, I am anxiously awaiting "Horizons" and expect it to be even better after having been worked on for over two years and Aoki stating that “’Horizons’ definitely has the definitive ‘Neon Future’ sound,”.
     
  15. Josh

    Josh Met LP 8-13-14 LPA VIP

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    ALTNC is a unique song. It's something I never would have expected and was just...random. Overall it's a good song but gets repetitive. I occasionally listen to it but it's not an amazing track.

    Although, I am kinda interested to see what "Horizons" brings to us.

    SOON.......
    :CUMULUS:
     
    Last edited: Feb 16, 2015
  16. rocker94

    rocker94 Well-Known Member

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    ALTNC it's like all on Recharged. It's funny to listen but very very different, mainstream and shitty for be Linkin Park. But it's still funny xD
     
  17. rocker94

    rocker94 Well-Known Member

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    I'm waiting for start with THP!!! :p
     
  18. Michele

    Michele Praise Brad Delson, our Lord and Savior. LPA Addict

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    Psssst, edit your post, double post annoys people here. Just a tip :kappa:
     
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  19. Captain-EO

    Captain-EO Also Prog Nerd Now, Thanks Gibs LPA Super Member

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    Don't tell people what to do :kappa:
     
  20. Atticus

    Atticus Bullets lance the bravest lungs

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    I'd be stoked to start The Hunting Party, but a few of the forum members seem to think we should give some time before moving onto the album.

    However, if everyone truly wants to continue with Keys To The Kingdom I'll be more than happy to oblige.
     

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